Kilburn History Festival 2011

The Kilburn History Festival will take place from Wednesday 6th – Sunday 10th July 2011 – a series of talks, walks and guided tours round interesting and significant local buildings.

More and more Kilburn residents have been making enquiries about the local history of the area – often triggered by the knowledge that the Kilburn High Road is the route of the ancient Roman Road, Watling Street.

The history festival comprises a series of 3 history talks, a guided history tour of the Kilburn High Road (repeated 3 times) and a series of local interesting old buildings that will be open for guided tours.

Programme of events July 2011

The talks on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday are all being held in St Mary’s Church, Abbey Road, NW6

• Wednesday 6th July
  Ancient and Medieval Kilburn by Ed Fordham



• Thursday 7th July
  The Development of Kilburn by Michael Alpert and Dick Weindling



• Saturday 9th July
  Lived here and Loved it. (famous people of Kilburn) by Dick Weindling

(we would like to ask for a donation towards raising money for the Historic Kilburn Plaque Scheme)

Sunday 10th July
History tours of Britain’s oldest road – Kilburn High Road

• 11am meet Kilburn Park Tube Station (Bakerloo Line) to Kilburn (Jubilee)



• 1.30pm meet Kilburn (Jubilee) to Kilburn Park Station (Bakerloo Line)



• 3.30pm meet Kilburn Park Tube Station (Bakerloo Line) to Kilburn (Jubilee)
  

(The tours are free of charge, but if you enjoy it any donation will be given towards the Plaque Scheme)

As most people know Kilburn is divided between Camden and Brent local authorities and in part in Westminster Council as well. This has had the effect of splitting the historical records – whilst Willesden and Hampstead, for example, have been well documented and researched Kilburn has been neglected.

This festival, working in conjunction with the Historic Kilburn Plaque Scheme, seeks to raise the profile of the ancient, diverse, and rich historical tapestry that exists in the local area.

Working with Camden Local Studies & Archives Centre and Brent Archives and Museum

31 years old this year - murals from the street

Regular readers of this blog will know my fascination and appreciation of local murals and here is a good 'un!

It's the railway bridge on Abbey Road as it crosses Belsize Road and this is the east side.

It is identified as being "Kids painting summer '78" and is beginning to look a tad tatty but it retains both it's charm, interest and an astonishing level of detail.

It has great artistic qualities - childlike, colourful, bold and varied...

There's a range of others that have been detailed on this site previously - some newish, many of them old:

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/10/many-murals-of-kilburn.html

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/10/street-murals-sure-beat-random-graffiti.html

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/11/save-old-visible-painted-wall-adverts.html

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2007/12/promotional-adverts-for-smoking.html

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-advertising-walls-by-popular.html

http://www.signalproject.com/kilburn/http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/07/second-largest-man-in-world.html

http://474towin.blogspot.com/2008/06/when-you-are-rushing-along-its-often.html

So here we go - let's show it off in full colour - hopefully the sections can be seen bit by bit as you look along the bridge left to right looking east:

I've tried to paste it up section by section but it proved amusingly difficult:


Does anyone know the then youngsters who painted it - were you there - is it your igloo, monster, house etc?

Get in touch...

Down with the nation's princess, up with the local mistress

Who would have thought that the name of a local pub could be so controversial - and not just today.

On the corner of Belsize Road and Abbey Road is The Cricketers pub - this is not a new pub but it is a new name.

Now I'm nostalgic and like 'old things' but I find it a real shame that pub names are just changed like this. But of course in this case it's not a new thing...

The pub is in fact built under Emminster House and came into existence in 1969 with the redevelopment of the estate. But before that the pub was the Princess of Wales.

Now I suspect that the Cricketers is a marketing play to make the pub more of a venue for those wanting to watch sport, and a calculation the people today don't know who Lillie Langtry was.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillie_Langtry

But of course the great historical and local connection is that Alexandra Road - just over the road is indeed after the Princess of Wales and dates from her marriage to the future King in 1863. But of course one of the residents of Alexandra Road ironically was the future mistress Lillie Langtry, the story goes that Prince Edward actaully visited Lillie here at Leighton House (now gone).

The interesting short-hand relating to the pub here is that the change the name of the pub from Princess of Wales to the Lillie Langtry was to replace the wide of Edward VII with his mistress!

All good story telling stuff - my interest now is that the pub sign doesn't just disappear with the change to The Cricketers.